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Saturday, November 30, 2013

A Goat of a Different Color

Quack!

1996, The New England branch of USA Track & Field
started a challenging race

series called the “Mountain Circuit”. The
brain-child of legendary mountain man Dave Dunham, the circuit initially consisted
of three all uphill mountain races: Wachusett, Kearsage and Pack Monadnock. All
3 races were run primarily on paved summit roads and varied in distance from
4.3 to 10 miles. Over the years new races were added such as: Ascutney, Northfield, Cranmore &
Loon. And some were taken away, such as: Kearsage & eventaully Northfield. Some of the
newer races featured courses run on hiking/skiing trails and a few of them
added the extra challenge of having to run back down the mountain! In 2006, I
finished the entire circuit (plus Mount Washington)
and wrote about my experiences HERE.

This year, the USATF-NE Mountain Circuit consisted of
6 races: Sleepy Hollow, Wachusett, Bretton Woods, Ascutney, Loon & Cranmore.
And had a good mix of: road, trail, all up, up/down & down/up. Pretty much
all you could ask for. Also, any runner who completed all 6 races received a
coveted Mountain Circuit T-Shirt, a By-Pass to the 2014 Mount Washington
Lottery and the all-important designation of “Mountain Goat”.Having completed the Mountain Circuit once before, but still
wanting a good multi-race challenge, I set sights on another legendary off-road
series called the Grand Tree. The WMAC-GT starts in April and doesn’t wrap up until November. During that
8 month stretch, the series hits 19 different locations with race distances
ranging from 7 to 26.4 miles. You can run as many (or as few) races as you like
and can accumulate points proportional to your pace as a percentage of the
winner's pace. Your best six races determine your final standing for the
series.

This past weekend, I just completed my 6th (and final) Grand
Tree race, and here’s a brief look at how they all went:

Merrimack River- 10 miles - April 13thDescription: A simple out and back course. The first 3
miles are on flat/fast trails, followed by 4 miles of challenging hilly terrain
and then 3 more miles of flat trail. It’s run entirely along the south side of
the Merrimack River – from Andover to Tewksbury and back. And,
is probably the fastest of all the 19 Grand Tree races.

Summary: I averaged 6:33’s for the first 3 miles
but after all the flat/fast ground, I had trouble switching gears into
climbing/descending mode. During the next 4 miles (half of which with
people running full speed at you) I ran some ugly 7:56’s. The last 3 miles were
run in 6:38’s despite a calf /achilles issue with 2 miles to go. All in all, not
a bad start.

Seven Sisters– 12.5 miles – May 5thDescription: An out and back course, that’s run along
part of the Monadnock-Metacomet Trail
in the Holyoke Range State Park.
The single-track path snakes east-west along the ridge between Amherst &
South Hadley, MA.
It goes over seven rocky outcroppings (known as the 7 Sisters) including Mt. Holyoke.
The footing is mostly on very sharp and/or loose Basalt rocks. And, once you’ve
gone over all seven of the sisters, then you have to turn around and run back
over them again! That’s like, um, 14 Sisters!

Summary: I was VERY careful through the first
half of the race - picking my way down the steep embankments, hand-over-hand up
the rocky ledges, tip-toeing along the knife-edged ridges, and zip-zagging
around the roots/rocks and over the fallen trees. My race truly began at the
turnaround as I threw caution to the wind and set about trying to mow down as
many runners as I could. Turns out, I was only a minute slower on the way back
and passed about 20 runners. Success!

Mount Greylock– 13.5 miles – June 16thDescription: This racewas one of the first
trail races I ever did (back in 2001) and featured a 10.5 mile ramble up,
around and over the Bay State’s highest peak followed by a terrifying 3-mile,
free-fall down a black diamond ski trail. This year, the course was run in
reverse, with the steep, black diamond UP coming first!

Summary: The average grade for the first 5k at
Greylock is 14.6%. So, needless to say it was pretty slow - 43 1/2 minutes! The rest of the race went well, relatively
speaking. I ran with another tall-ish runner and we picked our way carefully
through the very-wet trails. I passed a TON of people over the second half of
the race I was able to finish strong, despite the slippery conditions.

Blue Hills – 7.5 miles – July 7thDescription: The elevation gain/loss for this race
was pretty low (relative to Greylock) so assumed it would be a pretty quick race.
I was dead wrong! Other than the last grassy descent and a little fire road
section in the middle, this race was very technical. Meaning, there were rocks
and roots EVERYWHERE with really no place to “open it up” and run fast. Even on
the “flats” I always had to be focused on the trail ahead and see where I was
going to put my foot next.

Summary: Despite the 8am start, the temps at the
beginning of the race were in the high 70’s with nearly 100% humidity. Over the
course of the race, those temps would climb to the mid 80’s. It was not pretty,
at least for this “super-sized” runner - and my results reflected that! I ran
as hard as I could for most of this12k race, but could only manage a paltry -
11:00 min per mile pace. Yuck.

Wapack – 18 miles – September 1stDescription: The race route is an out-and-back that follows the
Wapack Trail between New Ipswich, NH and Ashburnham,
MA. There are four major
mountains in between: Barrett, New Ipswich, Pratt, and Watatic, from north to
south. Total climb and total descent are each about 3,000
feet. This is a very tough trail race and the only one where I’ve ever
had to stop, sit down and collect myself.

Summary: I ran well for most of the race but
bonked HARD with 4 miles to go. The heat and very high humidity took a huge
toll on me and I lost a lot of time (and places) over the last couple mountains.
Eventually, I crossed the blessed finish line 24 minutes slower than last year
and a whopping 17 minutes slower on the back than the out. Not pretty!

Pisgah– 14.3 miles – September 15thDescription: This is a loop course in New Hampshire’s largest
state park. It begins and ends in the center of Chesterfield and runs on paved roads, dirt
roads, double track trails and single track trails. In short, a little bit of
everything. None of the trails are too steep or technical – not flat, mostly
just rolling. There is also a 50k as part of this event which starts at the
same time.

Summary: I got stung by some bees during mile 4.
Other than that, the race itself went pretty well. I fell twice and puked
once, but still finished strong. I ended up 17th overall and just
squeaked under my reach goal of 2 hours. The weather was near perfect and
the 14.3 mile trail was mostly dry & completely runable. I also won a huge
jug of NH’s finest maple syrup and enjoyed a great post-race spread. A great
end to my foray into the WMAC Grand Tree Series.

Note: My 79
point average for the 6 races currently has me in 4th place overall for the Grand
Tree. We’ll see how well that holds up as the rest of the series continues on
without me.

After doing both series, it’s difficult for me to say which
one is harder. The Mountain Circuit draws a lot of the faster road runners, so
your perception of how well you did can sometimes be skewed by how far back you
finish. The Grand Tree races are typically longer, more technical and have more
elevation gain. But, they are also more low-key, fun (for me anyway) and draw a
more laid-back “Ultra” kind of crowd. In short, exactly what I was looking for
this year!

Finally, there was one race I did this year that was
actually part of BOTH series...

The Mount Cranmore Hill Climb.
The only previous time I ran Cranmore,the downhill running was so
steep and jarring that I puked at the bottom of my first of two laps. This
year, Cranmore was the site of the 2013 US Mountain Running Championships AND
we had to do 3 laps! Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to run this race. More
specifically, my legs weren’t ready to run this race. I had done 108 miles in
the 7 days preceding - including 22 of the 48 NH 4k footers and really had no
business toeing the line. I did OK for the first lap and a half, and then the
power went out. Long story short, this race knocked me
down, stole my milk money and I’d rather forget it ever happened.

Anyway, below is a side-by-side comparison of each
of the two series:

Mountain Circuit:

Race

Type

Dist.

Elev.

Climbs

(miles)

(feet)

1

Sleepy Hollow

Trail

6.2

2,400

3

2

Wachusett

Road

6.2

2,072

2

3

Bretton Woods

Trail

7.9

3,395

3

4

Ascutney

Road

3.7

2,266

1

5

Loon

Trail

5.5

2,152

2

6

Cranmore

Trail

7.5

2,519

3

37

14,804

14

WMAC
Grand Tree:

Race

Type

Dist.

Elev.

Climbs

(miles)

(feet)

1

Merrimack

Trail

10

1,456

2

2

Seven Sisters

Trail

12.5

3,700

7

3

Greylock

Trail

13.5

5,600

3

4

Blue Hills

Trail

7.5

3,608

4

5

Wapack

Trail

18

6,000

8

6

Pisgah

Trail

14.3

4,900

4

75.8

25,264

28

Still not sure which one is right for you? Why not run them both
and find out for yourself?